Former Guns n' Roses and current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan had sinus surgery on December 14th to repair damage caused by years of cocaine abuse. He talked about the drug abuse in the latest installment of his weekly column on Reverb at SeattleWeekly.com. He writes:
"From sometime in 1989 until about November 1993, I snorted perhaps my body weight in varying degrees of good, bad, and straight-up shitty blow. I don't recommend this to any of you young readers. I was NOT such a smart 20-something. Nope, just an ordinary drug-addict.
"I remember trying to glamorize all my drug and alcohol use back then. I would romanticize my life and my struggle as something noble and just. I was an ARTIST, maaan! I needed to dull myself to certain inputs or else my art would suffer. Yep, before I knew it, I was strung-out and terrified. Crappy stuff.
"Someone asked me about this stuff a while back, and 'what are your kids gonna say when they start to party?' Some people ask me these things in an almost bellicose way, as if suffering through my kids' drug-abuse issues would be just payback for what I have done to myself. Hopefully, I was a big enough idiot in my time that I have filled the dumb-ass quota for my whole family. God, I hope so."